AIG Updates:· We have completed watching Act 1 of Into the Woods, and students are identifying archetypal characters in the play. Act 2 will begin on Monday, 11/28/2011.· Ms. Lanier has introduced a new technology tool called Fakebook, where students create a mock Facebook account for a literary character.· Progress reports go home Monday. Attached to the progress report will be the contents of the AIG notebooks since last marking period. All students are required to bring a binder to class daily. When they are given a handout or assignment, they are to add it to their Table of Contents and then place in their binder. Most students are managing this quite well. Others need to be sure they are prepared for AIG by bringing the notebook and organizing the pages as soon as they get them. We leave a Table of Contents on the board daily, so they know what their Table of Contents should look like. They can also use this to see what work they have missed. Keeping a notebook in this way teaches organization and responsibility while also giving us a way for parents to view their child’s work every marking period.· Ms. Lanier has been working diligently to get the AIG folders in compliance since several signatures and forms were missing from last year. Thanks to all of you who were able to come in and sign this paperwork. If you were not able to come in, we have sent the paperwork home. Please have your child return it as soon as possible.· The next PAGE meeting is Tuesday, November 29. Thanks to all of you who have attended these meetings. · Please don’t forget to support our school and the AIG program through the Barnes and Nobles night. (flyer included)New York Updates:· Right now, we have about 60 students and 12 adults who have signed up for the NY trip. There has been a wonderful response to this trip, and we are glad everyone is excited. This trip will allow us to bond and get to know each other while creating many wonderful memories.· If you have signed up to chaperone, please don’t forget the chaperone meeting on Monday, 11/28/2011 in Mrs. DeCresie’s room at 6pm.· Mrs. Beaulieu has approved the next fund raiser for the trip. Several students have asked if they could make things to sell as potential Christmas gifts, and we have been given permission to do so. Two weeks prior to Christmas break, we will set up a table in the front hall near the office. Students will rotate through attending the table, and I will need an adult to volunteer to sit with them since money will be involved. They will be able to sell items our students have made to the school as classes go to lunch. Any AIG student who wants to sell items needs to follow these guidelines:o Make the price of the item reasonable. Remember you are primarily selling to students. o Try to keep your cost of materials low so you can make a profit.o You set the price you want to charge for what you have made.o Attach a tag to the item. On the tag, write the student’s first and last name and the price.o When the item sells, the person working at the table will cut off the tag and store it in the money box. When the box is returned to class, we will record what has been sold, and assign credit to that student in their account.o Whatever you make that gets sold goes in your account. This money earned will go toward your next payment. It cannot be used for spending money.o Please don’t make so many of an item that you lose money if it doesn’t sell.o Be willing to make a few of the item for the first week to see how it sells. You may want to take orders for more so you know how many to make the second week.o Decide if you want to take orders on a variation of your product. For example, one student suggested making bracelets out of cording. He could make a few in two colors, and then have a signup sheet listing what other colors he could make it in. Don’t commit to more than what would be cost effective. In other words, don’t just say you would do any two colors, because then you may have to buy cording of a certain color and only sell one bracelet of that color. o If you want to sell something but have no crafty skills, please let me know. I have a couple of ideas. However, you would need to be able to stay after school one or two days to make what I have in mind. · Participation in this fundraiser is optional. There will be another one for Valentine’s Day. If you do decide to make items to sell, there will be lots of time for parent /child bonding as you strategize together what you can cost effectively create.As always, please feel free to contact us. Email is usually the fastest way to get a response.Terri DeCresie decrest.cme@pitt.k12.nc.usSarah Lanier laniers.eba@pitt.k12.nc.us

This week we will:start watching Act II of Into the Woods. discuss Act II.Reminders:Progress Reports go out Monday, November 28. If your child is missing an assignment, please have them turn in and we will correct their grade.Parent chaperone meeting is Monday, November 28 at 6:00 in Ms. DeCresie's room (room 113).The raffle drawing is Wednesday, November 30. We will notify the winner's by phone and make an annoucement on Thursday, December 1.Any money raised for the raffle after November 15 can be deducted from the December deposit of $1

This week we will:start the unit "Into the Woods".read the Grimm fairy tale versions of Cinderella and Rapunzel.compare the Grimm fairy tales to the Disney versions.predict what we think our lives will look like in 30 years.write down 10 wishes we have (realistic or imaginable).begin watching the musical "Into the Woods" and discussing.

· Thanks for all of the feedback about the NY trip. The majority of the parents were in favor of keeping the trip to three days in NY and for seeing Wicked. We did cut one sit down meal. The total cost of the trip is $520.· The first payment for the trip is November 15 for $125. Please make checks out to C. M. Eppes and write your child’s name in the lower left corner of the check.· Any funds that you have made from the sale of raffle tickets can be deducted from your deposit.· The cost for parents to chaperone will be $475. Please send a $75 deposit on the 15th if you would like to chaperone. The remainder of the adult portion will be divided as follows:o December 15 - $100o January 15 - $100o February 15 - $100o March 15 - $100· Some people have asked if they could make two payments in November or pay the whole thing at once. Those options are fine. If you have any other payment concerns, please let me know.· Once we know who is willing to chaperone, we will need to meet with the chaperones to discuss various aspects of the trip. This meeting will be Monday, November 28 at 6pm in Mrs. DeCresie’s room. · I have not read the book Wicked, but heard that there are parts that are not appropriate for our students. I have seen the Broadway version of the book, and it is very family friendly. Please use precaution if your child wants to read the book.· In AIG class, we have completed the unit of study on microscopic conflicts. Students have looked at the microorganisms in the Petri dishes under the microscope, and we have discussed colonial morphology of the microbes. Without further testing, we are unable to identify what is actually growing in the dishes. Hopefully students have gained vocabulary and concepts that will be helpful if they pursue a medical career.· Currently, we have begun preparing to watch Into the Woods, a play that weaves together several fairy tale characters with a storyline that people of all ages can relate. We have read the Grimm version of Cinderella and Rapunzel in preparation to better understand the plot of the story.· Your child has an AIG folder that accompanies their cumulative folder through school. We are working on making sure the AIG folders have appropriate paperwork and signatures. If something is missing, Ms. Lanier will contact you and ask you to come in and sign some papers. She will try to schedule you to come in during the parent conferences if possible. Mrs. DeCresie will be working during the conference times with the robotics team, and will be unable to meet for conferences. Please feel free to contact her if you need her.· Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

Here is a link to a grant that will fund up to $1000 for a trip. I applied for our whole group for the "National Youth Day Out" but I'm not sure when I will hear back. This grant is for individual students to nominate. There is a form to fill out for your student or to have someone else nominate your student. Feel free to take a look. If you have any questions, there is a contact number or e-mail on the website. http://www.sytayouthfoundation.org/grants.php?mode=road

· Don’t forget your first deposit for the New York trip of $125 is due on November 15. · After including the cost of the chartered bus, the final price came to $549. We have been negotiating some changes to get the price below $500. We are also working out the cost of the trip if we cut one day off and just spend 3 days in NY instead of 4. As soon as we get this cost, we will put both itineraries and both prices on our weebly website and ask you to vote for which you prefer. The feedback will help us to get a majority opinion. We will send out an email the day the information is put on the website so you will know to go and vote. · Our first fundraiser will be to sell raffle tickets. Each student received 10 tickets today, and the tickets sell for $1 each. Students can sell them to school friends, teachers, neighbors, relatives, etc. When a ticket is sold, the student will need to get the buyer to neatly fill in their name and phone number at the bottom of the ticket. They need to give the top of the ticket to the buyer and bring the part with the name and phone number on it to us along with the money for the tickets. It will be helpful if the stubs and money is brought to us in the same brown envelope we are sending home today. We will receipt the money each time they turn it in, and we will staple the receipt to the envelope. This will help you keep up with the amount they have sold. Students keep 100% of what they sell, and it goes toward their payments. The last day to turn in money will be November 29, and the drawing will be November 30. Any money turned in prior to the 15th will go toward that payment. Any money turned in after the 15th will go toward the second payment.· We are working on other fund raisers as well, and we will let you know about them as soon as they are finalized. If you have any suggestions, please let us know. We have encouraged the students to seek out jobs to help them earn money by babysitting, raking leaves, etc. We have also encouraged them to get several families together and do some joint projects such as yard sales or bake sales.· If you are not getting emails from us, please give us your email address.· If you really want your child to go on this trip, but feel that you will be unable to financially pay for your child to go, even after the fundraisers, please email or call me.· The AIG classes are going well. We have taken our first SIGMA test, a math competition all the AIG students will compete in during their AIG time. We have finished the Salem witch trials and the students re-enacted their version of the trial. One theory of the mass hysteria associated with the witch trials is that a microscopic organism called ergot could have been growing on the wheat. That possibility has led us to look at microscopic conflicts around our school. Students have identified places around the school that might be the source of microscopic conflict, taken samples of those sites, and are culturing the samples they collected in petri dishes.· Please always feel free to contact us: Terri DeCresie decrest.cme@pitt.k12.nc.us or Sarah Lanier at laniers.eba@pitt.k12.nc.us

Wow it's already November!This week we will:re-collect samples for our microbiology experiment to find invisible conflict around the school.learn about the top 7 placse with the most germs.watch different video clips about bacteria, mold, and fungi (what it looks like and what they mean).learn about the different parts of the microscope.view the cultured petri dishes and determine what is growing in their petri dish based on handouts from ECU Medical school.